Steven Soderbergh

[swo17]

Has he ever talked about wanting to do a horror movie?

He just made one

[flyonthewall2983]

I blanked on that one.

[whaleallright]

I'm surprised nobody posted this here. TLDR: Brian De Palma makes an unsolicited dig at Steven Soderbergh, saying

“Steven Soderbergh, a visual director? Are you kidding?” De Palma said. “Give me an example of a great, visually memorable scene [from] Soderbergh or a silent sequence based on the staging…I saw an episode of ‘The Knick’ and there is nothing that [impressed me visually].”

I admire both directors, but I have to say this reflects poorly on De Palma (whose career effectively cratered around the same time Soderbergh's really took off, for what it's worth). Reading into his comments a bit, I'm inclined to think that De Palma (never, to say the least, the subtlest of directors) seems to mistake the sort of bravura effects for which he's known (dolly-zooms, split-focus shots, overhead shots, Steadicam marathons, etc.) with "visually memorable" cinema.

[domino harvey]

We discussed it in the De Palma thread

[diamonds]

That "powerhouse" cast for The Laundromat has been revealed: Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, and David Schwimmer. Netflix to finance and distribute.

[domino harvey]

Why is "powerhouse" in quotes?

[diamonds]

That's the word they had used to describe it before. Didn't mean to imply otherwise haha.

[domino harvey]

Soderbergh's media journal for 2018

[mfunk9786]

Steven Soderbergh was on Bill Simmons' podcast on Monday and they spoke for over an hour about a number of topics. Simmons still has the same 80s and 90s points of reference that are tiresome to listen to, but he does a pretty good job of conducting an interview here. He and Soderbergh discuss distribution models at length, and I found one point particularly compelling - when he stated that by Friday at noon after he saw early numbers for Logan Lucky and Unsane, he wanted to essentially beg to be allowed to just drop each film on streaming and be done with it instead of letting them die on the vine in theaters. It doesn't sound like he's going to go down that road for a third time.

Also, when asked what film in the last several years he is the "most jealous of," he responded with Under the Skin, which is a very Soderberghian answer considering some of the fourth wall breaking that goes on in the production and execution of that film. Stated that Glazer has made three perfect films, and that Birth is "as close to a Stanley Kubrick film" as we've gotten since his death.

I still struggle with Under the Skin to some degree but I cannot argue with Soderbergh on much of that.

Oh, and "for the first time in I don't know how long," he doesn't know what he's doing next. Has a few options, but has no idea what's coming after The Laundromat.

[chiendent]

He also mentioned almost being brought in last-minute on a big project that instead ended up getting delayed a year or so but obviously couldn't say what it was. I know this kind of stuff must happen all the time but I'm pretty curious.

[mfunk9786]

Yes, that's a key detail, thanks for the reminder!

Another tidbit that has me wondering: Apparently he showed the [then] final cut one of his films to a director friend, and the director pulled him aside and said that he must scrap and redo the score. Despite there being very little time to do so, he took the advice. Wonder which one that was?

[The Narrator Returns]

Cliff Martinez was doing the score for Out of Sight so close to its release that he's credited on the poster, so I imagine it's that. Either that or The Good German, which had a David Holmes score that was replaced by Thomas Newman's.

[The Narrator Returns]

Listening to the podcast now, and it's almost certainly The Good German for how Soderbergh talks about it having no commercial prospects.

[DarkImbecile]

Steven Soderbergh Surprised His Drunken Oscar Speech Is the Academy’s New Gold Standard

[flyonthewall2983]

Watched The Limey for the first time in awhile. The whole veneer of boomer regret feels more or as prescient now. The lamentation may be towards Wilson's daughter, but in a larger respect it feels like one towards how "they blew it" for themselves and future generations too.